A blog dedicated for posting challenging solutions and ideas for promoting the future evolution of the AEC community!

Thursday, November 19, 2015

Autodesk University 2015: Business Card Management for Dummies!

It's been a pretty universal topic across the interwebs that if you're attending Autodesk University you had better bring a bunch of business cards! Having attended these conferences I'm aware that I need to make space in my travel bag for a bunch of cards. Generally this isn't a problem, the problem exists when you get back to the office and you have to dig through all these cards to connect with someone, and have a hard time sifting through the pile of madness. The following is my new process for organizing and managing all the business cards, so I don't risk being unable to contact someone later in the future! I'm sure there are other fantastic ways to manage this, but this is just one of the many ways that works best for me!

You will need a Microsoft 365 Account. As a student I have a free account, and am able to utilize this service; however, this option will not be available if you don't already subscribe. There are other applications through the web you can search for to manage this, but this process seems to work best for me! I can still bring the cards back and put them in my drawer, but the benefit to this process is that the contacts will be stored as soon as I capture the card and download the .vcf on my desktop!

1. Download Microsoft Lens

2. Take a picture of your business card.

3.) Automatically adjusts to fit the card to the screen.

4.) Choose your OneNote (Contact + Image) option.

5.) Name the person's card.

6.) List of contacts for easy access in the future. If you click the organization button next to the edit button it will display an image of the business cards as well.

7.) The interface appearance on One Notes Website

8.) Downloading the contact information to your outlook account.

9.) Open this file

10.) All the cards information is autofilled, and there is no typing necessary. The process literally takes seconds per card!